Generally, the most common method used for removing stretch film from a palletized load (e.g., including a plurality of stacked items) is to manually cut and remove the film from the load. As can be appreciated, such manual cutting and removal of the stretch film has many disadvantages. First, the method can be relatively dangerous (e.g., due to one generally handling a cutting device). In addition, the method can be time consuming (e.g., due to such loads typically being large in size, one often needs to walk around and/or climb above the load to effectively cut and remove the stretch film). As a result, such manual removal of stretch film can be very costly to businesses that repetitively receive stretch film wrapped loads. However, in today's marketplace, using stretch film to bundle stacked item loads has been found to be both effective and relatively inexpensive. As such, the practice of using stretch film in this manner is not likely to be replaced anytime soon.
To remedy the relatively dangerous, time-consuming, and costly shortcomings of the above-described manual method, many types of apparatus have been designed to automatically cut and/or remove stretch film or other wrapping from such loads. However, many of these apparatus types fall short of providing cost effective, low-maintenance, and/or ergonomic approaches to cutting and/or removing the stretch film.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,766,630 to Rutten teaches apparatus and methods used to automatically cut and remove stretch film or other wrapping from a load. Such apparatus and methods are provided therein to enable cost effective, low-maintenance, and ergonomic techniques of removing and cutting stretch film. Enhancements which are applicable not only to the teachings of the '630 patent, but also to teachings related to other such unwrapping apparatus and/or methods, are described and illustrated herein.